COUNCIL workers in Sefton face compulsory redundancy after just 105 staff volunteered to leave as part of a huge cost-cutting drive.

Senior politicians last week resolved that staff may have to be axed if the cash-strapped authority is to bridge a spiralling budget black hole.

Over the next three years, council chiefs must save £25m – including £13m by the end of the financial year.

In a newsletter to staff, council chief executive Margaret Carney said: “Throughout this whole process we will explore all options in an effort to balance the budgets without the need for compulsory redundancies kept to the absolute minimum.

“Discussions will be held with the trade unions to see if further savings can be made.”

Those discussions began last Wednesday when Sefton Unison branch secretary Glen Williams pitched ways in which the council could avoid the cull of staff – which could reach as many as 400.

Mr Williams proposed a raft of potential savings to senior councillors at Cabinet and is now negotiating how some of their proposals could work.

He said: “We submitted a report and alternative budget options for the Cabinet to discuss and to be fair they gave them some credibility.

“We have proposed a whole raft of practical ways that money can be saved.”

Mr Williams said they included curbing the “millions” the council spends on consultants and agency workers as well as beefing up how council tax dodgers are dealt with.

Unison also made a bid for the redundancy package on offer to be improved in the hope more staff would volunteer to go, rather than seeing scores of staff forced out.

Only around 105 staff volunteered to go after a plea in September.

The union said money could be raised to fund a better pay-off by selling off land and other assets.

Mr Williams added: “We hope that they will be able to make the necessary savings without making compulsory redundancies.”

Commenting on Unison’s proposals, Sefton’s leader Cllr Tony Robertson said: “We were happy to accept their ideas to be put into the pot. I actually thanked them for putting it in and effectively said to them that their comments would be taken seriously.

“Whether we will be able to pursue in detail the issues put forward is yet to be seen.”

The council’s cost-saving programme reaches a critical stage on Thursday at a specially convened behind-closed-doors meeting when councillors will finalise a list of potential savings.